China's President Hu Jintao will press U.S. President George W. Bush to reiterate opposition to any move toward independence by Taiwan when they meet in Washington later this week, analysts said. China has been angered by Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's scrapping of a forum on unification with the mainland in February and comments last month by Japan Foreign Minister Taro Aso that referred to the self-governing island as a country. Taiwan yesterday rebuffed an offer by Hu for talks that's conditional on the island recognizing both are part of the same country. ``The Taiwan issue is miles ahead of any other agenda, as far as China is concerned,'' said Tao Dong, chief Asia economist at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. ``A reiteration of the one-China policy would be the minimum expectation from China. Any comments against the current movement would be considered a breakthrough.'' ... http://quote.bloomberg.com

The government is dangerously behind on plans to build mobile field hospitals that could be needed to treat thousands of sick and dying victims of a terrorist attack or natural disaster, according to doctors in the government's medical response program, former top disaster officials and some members of Congress.The Homeland Security Department, which runs the nation's disaster-response system, "by and large has not been serious about the medical issues," said Jerome Hauer, former head of the federal Office of Public Health Preparedness. "They don't get the notion that during a disaster one of the fundamental needs is taking care of the large number of patients."One example is Homeland Security's failure to complete a prototype of a 250-bed field hospital. The Bush administration is preparing to unveil a flu pandemic plan, but 4½ years after 9/11 and anthrax attacks prompted warnings of ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-04-16-hospital-plans_x.htm

Two registered sex offenders were fatally shot in their homes Sunday morning, prompting the state to take down the Maine Sex Offender Registry Web site. State police said the site, which contains the photos, names and addresses of more than 2,200 registered sex offenders, was taken off-line as a precaution.Investigators said a 19-year-old Canadian man described as "a person of interest" in the case shot himself in a Boston bus station after he was cornered by police later Sunday.Stephen A. Marshall was in critical condition at Boston Medical Center, a spokesman said.The pickup truck Marshall was driving was spotted leaving one of the victim's homes after the shooting, Maine state police said. They alerted authorities in Boston after discovering the vehicle abandoned and bullets linked to Marshall in the bathroom of a bus station, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,191944,00.html

As Chinese President Hu Jintao visits the United States this week, he leaves behind a noisy debate about his country's future. "This is a critical moment," says He Weifang, a law professor at Beijing University who is an outspoken activiist for reform. "There is a lot of opposition to continuing the reforms as they are today."Social and economic reforms have transformed this giant country, building bright cities of neon in the gray land that Mao Zedong ruled until his death in 1976. Mao's successor, Deng Xiaoping, opened the country to the West and market forces in the 1980s and '90s.Deng kept the lid tight on debate, however. "In Deng's time, the policy was: 'Don't debate (whether) reform is socialist or capitalist, just do whatever's beneficial,' " He says. "But we can't go on like that." ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-04-16-china-politics_x.htm

A Panamanian air force helicopter on Sunday pursued and shot down a light aircraft suspected of hauling drugs bound for the United States, killing one person aboard and injuring the only other. Panamanian officials said the plane was on a runway preparing for take-off at a regional airport close to the border with Costa Rica when aviation agents asked its pilot to remain on the ground.The order was refused and the plane took off. A Panamanian helicopter gave pursuit. Shots were fired at the light plane and it came down in a banana plantation.Local news media said the two aboard the plane were Mexican nationals, but officials refused to confirm their nationalities. It was not immediately clear what type of drugs the plane was carrying....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060417/ts_nm/panama_drugs_dc

Pope Benedict XVI made no groundbreaking statements in his first Easter message as pontiff. He prayed for peace in Iraq, called for an "honorable solution" to nuclear crises — an apparent reference to Iran — and voiced support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state.Nevertheless, the Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square was fraught with symbolism for the new pope. Easter coincided with the pope's 79th birthday and came three days before his first anniversary as pontiff.EASTER MESSAGE: Pope reflects on the world's troubled regionsThe past year has revealed Benedict as a surprisingly popular and empathetic pontiff, Vatican experts say. That contrasts with the reputation he developed for hard-line theological views in his previous role as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's top enforcer on doctrinal issues....http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-04-16-benedict_x.htm